A Perfect Match
by IcyTanya
Summary: What if Seto was not so cold? And Joey loved him? When Tea and Mai find out, with a little help from Mokuba, brother extradinaire, they might just turn the world of YuGiOh! upside down!
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer-I own nothing but the plot.

If you don't like yaoi so don't read. I will not accept flames though constructive, I repeat, constructive criticism is wanted.

IMPORTANT – I have decided to write some fanfics whose plots or pairings etc. have been sent in by the readers, if there's a story or pairing you've always wanted but can't seem to find send it in to me before February, 2005 and I'll do my best to write it. No bar on anime, pairing (yaoi, yuri or het) alright? For , it's ok if it isn't an anime.

I'm new but don't be easy on me for that, I want to know exactly where I'm going wrong.

Now On With The Story-

"Oh great! As if it wasn't enough that I'm gay, I just had to be in love with Seto-I-hate-all-humans-Kaiba".In a small bedroom in a nice apartment, this could be heard if you listened closely enough. 'But really is he so bad, I mean he loves Mokuba doesn't he? There has to be _some_ good in the guy if he's willing to die for his brother. And really with those blue eyes that seem to look into you, and I would die if he gave me a smile a proper one that is. What am I saying, it's like asking a rock to smile at you, especially if it's me who asks, I really don't know why he hates me so.' Our narrator mused about this

"What am I thinking? I DON'T LIKE HIM!' He shook his head and was about to continue his rant when, "Who don't you like, Joey?" Joey fell off his bed where he had been sitting.

"No one Tea, absolutely no... wait a second what are you doing here anyway?" He demanded from his place on the floor

Tea sighed and shook her head, "Don't you remember Joey? We made a deal two days ago that I would come over to your house in order to finish our history project. ", She continued quickly before Joey could start a lecture about how much he hated the project "Mr. Wheeler called you from outside but you didn't answer so he asked me to come on in. Anyway who is it that you 'hate' so much?" She said this with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"I told ya. Its no one ok? Knock it off Tea and let's", he gulped before making the ultimate sacrifice, "st...start on our history project"

"No way, Joey. Stop trying to change the subject! Who is mystery guy?"

Joey nearly cried, even him asking to start working hadn't stopped her, "There is no mystery guy Tea, why do..."

Tea interrupted him at this point, "Is it Kaiba?" she asked him sitting down on the bed.

Joey looked at her, stunned speechless. Tea continued in a pleased manner, "So I was right! That explains a lot."

It was Tea's turn to be interrupted, "Like what? To me it makes my whole stupid problem a lot more complicated" Joey sat down beside her in a huff. It was obvious that he had thought about this and his conclusions of it were not happy ones.

"What exactly is your problem Joey? I doubt you loved him from the start."

"No actually I didn't... wait a second! Who said I loved him?" was the stubborn reply

"I did!" exclaimed Tea experasted, "And your diary as well," she added smugly

"You read my DIARY?" he screamed, looking quite close to falling off the bed again

"Yes, well. That's not the point. The point is that you love Seto Kaiba and you seem to have a problem with him. C'mon Joey at least talk to me about it, that'll help. It does"

"Fine, my problem is that every time I try to be civil or make a truce he starts to insult me again and he seems to come up with more colorful ones every time" Joey added the last part sourly, "Though he never loses the mutt one"

"Actually Joey you know what? Kaiba hasn't called you 'mutt' since some time, almost since Battle City. He calls you 'pup' which is actually more of an endearence than an insult. And about the colorful insults," Tea had to try very hard to keep a straight face at this, "Maybe he feels that you are getting bored with him and that's why he tries to keep you uh... entertained? Or not." She added when she saw the convulsions on Joey's face

"Is this Kaiba we're talkin' about Tea? The Seto Kaiba? Does he actually think about anything else except his brother, his company and himself?" Joey replied and muttered under his breath, "In that order"

Tea rubbed her forehead; she could see that this was going to be a long chat. "And I'm assuming that you like him that way? Since even in love you're under no illusions about his character?"

"If you put it that way... why does he assume that I'm an ignoramus though?" He grumbled

"Same reason he can ask himself why you consider him cold-hearted, maybe" Tea said with an inward whoop; she knew she was getting through to Joey. "For all you know he might be doing that this very minute!" she added getting excited

"Fat chance" replied Joey in a glum voice which reminded Tea that Kaiba was really not like most people, you couldn't say what he was thinking at the best of times and she was hardly the best authority on him, 'Come to think of it, who is the best authority on him? Oh, of course.MOKUBA! He'll do anything for his brother's happiness as well. I know he tried to get him to be nicer. Let's see what we can do about this mess'

"Cheer up, Joey. It's not the end of the world; it's not even the end of your love life"

"But I love HIM, him and no one else."

"And for all we know he might love YOU, so we are going to find out whether he does or not." Tea finished firmly

Joey looked as if he would like to debate the point but he left it with a half-shrug

Then Tea added smiling, "Let's start on our history project shall we? Since you so kindly offered?"

"Tea, this is plain torture."

"And you're going to have to go through with it" Tea said in a sing-song voice, teasing him

"Not funny"

"Nope, only the truth"

"Whatever"

"Come ON Joey," She said "The faster we finish the more time we'll have to talk about your problem"

"Oh joy to the world" Joey replied sarcastically

Tea looked at him in surprise, "What?" he asked after a minute losing his patience

"It's just that you seem to have been well, _reading_, perhaps?" she suggested

"Well, yeah I kinda got angry with Kaiba thinking I knew nothing so..." He left the rest of the sentence hanging, he looked embarrassed

"That's um... nice" said Tea still in shock, "You did it to prove Kaiba wrong? Or were you just trying to understand him a little better?"

"Neither, or maybe both. I don't really understand it myself, and after the first few books I started to actually like it and I started reading for the sake of reading and not to _do_ anything"

"Doesn't answer my question though"

"But this is all you're going to get until I understand myself"

"I understand" She said 'Though I don't like it' she added silently to herself

The same day, a mere few blocks away:-

"Listen, I really need to get in. I'll fail my class if I don't get this damned project finished" exclaimed a pretty blonde with pinkish eyes

"Sorry miss, no one's allowed in. It's Mr. Kaiba's orders", the secretary explained "And if you don't mind would you please stop screaming so loud? You're disturbing the office workers"

"Yes I would mind! Tell Kaiba to get his ass out here, NOW." replied the blonde

"I'm here. Would you mind telling me what this is about?" came a cool voice from behind her

Mai, for that was the name of the blonde, jumped in surprise and turned around to find herself looking at Seto Kaiba, she was taken aback but that didn't stop her, "No, _that _I wouldn't mind Kaiba"

"Then please step inside my office" Seto indicated his office

Mai first sight of the office made her raise her eyebrow, 'He's so rich you'd think he lived in the lap of luxury, but this place looks like a normal office albeit one where meetings are frequent. Maybe he isn't such a brat? I have to find out, this looks intriguing.'

"Now," said Seto after offering Mai a seat, "May I ask why exactly you deemed it necessary to come here and attempt to make everyone here lose their hearing?"

"I deemed it necessary because we have a history project to do. _Together_. Which counts as half of our grade marks. We'll both fail but good if we don't get this done. We would have to get full marks in everything else to pass and, while I don't doubt that you can do it, I'm pretty sure I can't."

"Have you finished? Taken a good deep breath? Yes?" When Mai nodded "This is the project we have to hand in on Thursday, right?" When Mai nodded again, "So we have to fix up a time to do it."

"Actually," Mai cut in, "We do need to do a bit of research work and..."

"That's already done, I did it. I was just waiting for you to call me about it." Seto answered

"WHAT??? But why didn't you call me?" screamed Mai

"If you would allow me to keep my eardrums then I'll answer you." Mai glared at him balefully, not that it had any effect, "We had decided after the project was set that since you had a busy week, you would call me and tell me when you were free, meanwhile I would do the research work. When you didn't call I assumed that you weren't free at all though I was surprised, why didn't you call by the way?" explained Seto calmly

Mai stared at him stunned, 'Uh oh!' she thought "Um... actually the thing is" she began when Seto took the burden off her shoulders

"You forgot?"

"Kind of"

"Why am I not surprised?" he said, more to himself than to Mai, "Anyway, now that you remember, when are you free?"

"Right now" Mai suggested tentatively "If it's alright with you that is" she added hastily

'He's probably mad already; I can't impose on his office time.'

"No, that's perfectly fine, but I have some work left to do that'll take about fifteen minutes, if you can start on the project, after I've finished we'll go over to my house and finish it" Seto said

'I'm getting more astonished by the minute, most because he hasn't kicked me out yet'

Mai mused

"Alright" was all she said aloud

After this followed a productive ten minutes of silence broken only by the clicking of a computer's keyboard being used and the scratching of pen upon paper. Mai suddenly spoke up, "You've changed you know" She didn't know how else to get out of him the information of why he had changed

The sound of the keyboard paused, "Why would you think so? Do you think you even knew me well enough to judge me right now?"

"There didn't seem a lot of you to figure out" replied Mai, only half knowing how callous that sounded

"No, it didn't did it? Leave it anyway"

"No I won't, your just trying to change the subject!"

"And if I am?"

"If you are, why are you?"

"You just said, I quote _'There didn't seem a lot of you to figure out'_ so figure out the answer to that"

"That was past tense, I've changed my mind"

"And if I don't want to tell you?" The sound of the keyboard resumed

"You have to give me marks for persistence" replied the incorrigible girl

"Of course, Miss Mai Valentine gets full marks for effort and none for actual information" countered Seto

Mai felt rather than saw the amusement radiating from him

"Is there any chance of us finishing this before midnight?"

"Not likely but we really don't have to finish it today, anyway I'm finished here so pack up there and we'll go to my house" said Seto

Sometime, approximately half an hour and seven minutes later, they were sitting in Seto's living room. Mai had tried but she couldn't get back to the easy indifference they had reached, back at Kaiba Corps. Even though Seto was civil enough he didn't really say anything unnecessary. "We need color pencils to finish this drawing Kaiba."

"I'm busy here, there are some in my room, it's on the right hand side on the third floor as soon as you reach the top of the stairs" Seto replied a bit absent mindedly as he was trying to check a piece of tricky information

Mai walked to the stairs, 'This place is pretty cool. So is Kaiba, icy in fact' she laughed slightly, as she reached the top of the stairs, 'There it is' she ran to the room not noticing anything. She went in and her gaze at once fell on the chest of drawers across the room beside the bed. Apart from that she had eyes for nothing else, she opened the top drawer and found what she wanted but she also saw something else, 'Why it's his diary' she thought surprised, curiously she set down the pack of color pencils and opened the book to a random page. At once the most amazing words she had ever seen leapt up to her eyes, _I love the pup; I really do even though he'll never know. He wouldn't understand, he's probably after that blonde from the Tournament,' _Mai shook her head, 'Me? Stupid Kaiba.' _I would give anything to be with him, which is why I always fight with him. He thinks I'm so cold, will he ever know how much I hide, 'Oh tell me why, do we build castles in the sky? Please tell me why, all the castles way up high!' _'He listens to that type of songs? Maybe he's different from all we thought of him. What a mistake we made when we thought he didn't care. This is all I need to know, I must help him, I'm sure he needs it.' Thinking this Mai carefully put away the book, took up the pack of color pencils and made her way downstairs.

Once she was beside Seto she didn't know how to broach the subject, she felt so guilty.

She set the pencils down beside their project and tried to say something, "Kaiba?"

"Yes?"

"Uh... Kaiba"

"Still here"

"Kaiba"

"I'm all ears; just spit it out already, contrary to popular expectations I'm not going to eat you if it's something I don't like." He said losing patience though he said it quietly

"After encouragement like that who wouldn't be tempted," she joked, "Kaiba, do you like...

Alright so I'm evil, shrugs anyway, I don't know Mai very well, and I'm sorry if Seto is too OOC, but I want to try him out like this. Don't worry he won't give in to Yugi-tachhi too easily. Anyway I don't think Tea is bad so she will play a major part in my story though I'm NOT going to pair her up with anyone, especially not Yami.

I'm not someone who writes only for the sake of writing so if I don't get reviews telling me to go on, then I'll abandon the story, even though I don't really want to.


	2. Something About Them

I'm thankful to those who reviewed, you really made my day thumbs up

By the way, while the yami's will provide comic relief, they will not be evil, I'm also going to make Malik(the hikari) a lot more like Ryou and Yugi, it's not like we really know how he was before being taken over by his yami.

This is the next chapter, for you guys-

* * *

...music?" Mai finished 

"Of course, but why do you ask?" Seto asked obviously surprised

"Uh...um...no reason but anyway, would you please answer one question truthfully?" said Mai, she was afraid he would say no and then her plan to help him would be over before it even _began_.

"What?" said Seto his eyes still on the book he had been writing from.

"Why do you always avoid Yugi, Ryou and the rest?"

Seto looked up, 'Is she playing with me?' but from her face he could see that she was completely serious, he sighed and leant back on the chair, "Maybe you should sit down," he suggested, trying to buy himself some time "It's like this," he went on, "at first I really did hate them, you see I thought that they had impossible ideals. I didn't believe in the heart of the cards and I guess I thought it was plain silly. That was until a bit before Battle City, then after all that had happened I just couldn't remain a skeptic. I started to like them and, in fact, I do like them but I had to rescue my brother and after I had been so nasty to them I couldn't say sorry, I just can't be humble and I've already forgotten how to make friends, and how to be a friend." he finished, 'I wonder why I'm telling her all of this, I just hope she won't make fun of me' he mused

Mai sat still for a moment, trying not to get too excited 'First stage of my plan is nearly complete. I know if I tell Yugi this he'll make sure that he becomes Seto's friend, that guy has a way of worming into anyone's heart. Having Ryou and Malik around won't be bad either; they are also like Yugi, just as forgiving.' Aloud she said, "It's alright to be shy you know."

"Yes, but not for me. I can't make a mistake, if I do Mokuba and my company might be taken from me."

"I see your point but can't you talk to them?"

"I told you why I can't"

Mai sighed, "I doubt even the nobles of Egypt were this proud!"

"Of course they were, I was one of them" Seto smirked

"I forgot... can't you even let a girl make a good comeback?" said Mai in a huff

"Yes I can, but that was _not_ a good comeback" replied Seto, plainly enjoying the showdown of words

"Why do you fight so much with Joey anyway?"

Seto looked taken aback at the change of subject, "One thing I can't tell you" he replied after a moment

"Please tell me" Mai said this not in a pleading voice but in a cooler business-like one, she instinctively knew pleading only worked with him if it was his brother who was doing it.

Seto answered, "Because, when he tries, he can actually come up with worthwhile insults" 'And looks very flustered and adorable when he can't' he added silently to himself

"You mean you actually like being insulted? Weirdo"

"I never said I like being insulted, I like the word play. I learn a few extra insults that way too." He nearly smiled

'So, next proof that he likes Joey. Aside from Mokuba, he's the only subject that can make Kaiba smile, or as close to smiling as KAIBA ever gets.'

Somewhere in the house a large clock chimed ten times, it was now ten in the night.

"I had better get back home" Mai said, "I'll see you in school tomorrow"

Seto nodded, "Good night"

Back to the apartment dear friends, it was now 7:15 in the morning and from the adjoining bathroom of the same room as before came a soft voice singing.

Despite public belief, Joey actually was a morning person. He usually looked so grumpy just because he had to go to school. At the moment he was thinking, 'I'll take my roller blades to school; I'll use them when coming back since I need to use the bus now.'

From outside came a call, "Joey, breakfast's ready."

Joey yelled back, "Coming dad"

He dressed quickly and jumped into the next room, "Good morning dad"

"Well, you sure seem perky today" said his dad

"Yeah, for once I actually got all my homework done" joked Joey

Joey's dad glanced at the watch hung above the television, "No offence Joey, but if you don't hurry I don't think you'll be able to hand any of it"

Joey gulped down his milk and grabbed his roller blades as he went out, "Thanks Dad, bye."

He sped off to the bus stop where he arrived at the same time as the bus. After he got in the bus he took a back seat, and resigned himself to a long wait for the others. He was humming a tune when he started wishing he had his music player when he suddenly realized, "I DO HAVE IT".

Unfortunately the realization came too loudly for the rest of the bus who turned around and glared at him, not that he noticed, he had already taken out his player from his bag and was listening to Destiny's Child, an English band he loved. All too soon the rest of the gang arrived and Joey had to put away his things quickly, no one knew about his tastes, they probably wouldn't have minded but he felt as if he had been lying to them

when he didn't tell them about what he liked, even though what they thought of his tastes were actually assumptions and not anything he himself had said. No sooner had he put his things away, Tristan came and slapped his back, "Hi, _pup_"

'He should know better than to tease me like that' thought Joey furiously, his face though was oddly cool, he replied, "Oh yes, hello you abomination of mankind"

Everyone burst out laughing, for some reason the way Joey said it made it sound even funnier than it normally would have. Tea all the while was thinking, 'After yesterday, I think I broke down a wall Joey had built around him. I'm quite sure that we are going to see a new Joey Wheeler soon. After all, if he started to read and we didn't find out...what else about him didn't we know?'

Out of the others, Tristan had started fighting with Joey and only the hikaris noted something different, especially Malik who, being new to the group had tried to fix his ideas about everyone there, he certainly hadn't expected this of Joey, he narrowed his eyes and gazed thoughtfully at Joey, 'Is he ill? Or has he changed since Battle City? I don't think he would have done anything like this there. In fact, until today I have never seen him being serious, least of all when he's insulted'

At that moment Joey felt Malik's gaze on the back of his head, he turned around and smiled at him, reassuring him.

Soon enough the school rolled around, not too soon for Joey whose face was beginning to ache from laughing, courtesy of Tristan's tickle attacks. Joey jumped out of the bus as soon as it stopped; followed by Yami who was trying to run away from Bakura. Marik, to everyone's surprise, was the most dignified of the three. He waited in line and got off gracefully. Tea got off last and started scanning the surroundings for Mai who had called her the last night and asked to talk to her, "Hey, Tea" she heard simultaneously with a tap on her shoulder

"Mai, hi" Tea replied

"Can I talk to you alone for a second?"

"Sure" Tea shrugged though inside she was burning with curiosity

Mai pulled Tea to a big tree, out of earshot. "Listen Tea, I need your help setting up two people, you might not like the people so you have to promise not to tell anyone if you don't want to help me, alright?"

"Oh, alright, who is it? And do you know whether any of them like the other or not?"

"Just don't freak out okay? It's Joey and Kaiba. And I know for a fact that Kaiba likes Joey!"

To Mai's astonishment, instead of freaking out Tea nearly screamed out "Yahoo!"

"What's the matter Tea? Have you gone mad?" she inquired

"No, it's just that I know for a fact that _Joey_ likes _Kaiba._

"That's like terrific news, but I have to know; how did you find out?"

"Well, Joey told me. But more to the point, how did you find out that Kaiba likes Joey?"

"I read his diary, and I figured out a lot more about him as well. The story goes like this..." and Mai narrated all the incidents of the day before to Tea

"Wow, Kaiba's poker face sure is effective, he should be glad that he did not take up dance. Expressing emotions sure isn't his strong point" said Tea, too shell-shocked to say or even think much more

"Anyway so you'll help?" pressed Mai

"Of course I'll help" Tea exclaimed, "But for the moment let's get to class, I'll talk with you later" she added

"Yeah, bye"

The two ran into the school and then into different rooms as their homeroom classes were across from each other. Tea arrived gasping and panting but in time, Mai wasn't in Lady Luck's good graces though, and got detention the next day. The next day because her teacher was 'busy', Mai sighed and mentally rolled her eyes, 'Everyone knows that her 'darling' boyfriend is the world to her' she thought sarcastically and dumped her books on the first empty desk she saw which was next to she noted, Kaiba. 'That's good, I can get closer to him this way, I don't care if she catches us talking. She won't say anything; it's always "Oh hello, Mr. Kaiba" and the tone she uses!' Mai shuddered 'I wonder if she would give up her boyfriend for Kaiba?' she mused, 'Not that she'll have the chance if I have a say in it'

"Hi Kaiba" she said coolly

"Hello, Valentine" he replied in the same way

Mai realized with a jolt that he had never called her anything at all before, 'But it feels so cold to be called by your surname, and he has to go through with it all the time'

The teacher passed by just then so she didn't say anything else. As soon as she was gone, Mai leant over and whispered, "Call me Mai"

Seto hesitated, when Mai smiled comfortingly and said, "I won't call you Seto yet if you don't like it"

"Thank you" he muttered

The teacher started calling out names, "Here" called Mai when she heard hers

"Here" Seto said a few minutes later when his name was called

They separated outside as they only had one class together, which was after lunch.

Mai somehow struggled through the day; even though she was just too excited too pay attention. Unfortunately for her, she didn't share any classes with Tea that day and she had to go talk to a teacher at lunch. Mai nearly strangled the teacher when he laughed and told her at the end of lunch period that she was the wrong person, she needn't have come at all.

'He is so annoying, isn't he the teacher that taught the juniors that Jupiter was the hottest planet?' she grumbled to herself as she stomped off to her next class, she brightened though when she realized that it was with Seto.

She slipped into a seat at the corner besides Seto's usual place. Seto arrived a few minutes later with the general crowd of students. He sat beside her and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

Mai jerked up and blinked at him, confused, "What do you mean? I'm perfectly fine"

"No, you're not. You have dark circles around your eyes, you look ready to murder and you look very sleepy. A combination which I had until now thought impossible to pull off. Also you were not at lunch."

"Oh, I'll explain, I was talking with someone last night until almost twelve so I didn't get much sleep, I had to meet a person in lunch but a professor stopped me and asked to talk to me at lunch and at the end told me that I was the wrong person, do you know how annoying...Kaiba? What are you looking at?"

* * *

I know, I know. The chapter sucked, I'll try to make the next one a lot better. Actually I had writer's block (already!) And this is all I could squeeze out of the dry sponge that is my brain. Since I'm giving cliffie's I'll put all the chapters up as soon as possible. By the way, I'm really not lying I have the next chapter written and I'll put it up as soon as I get enough  is the best! The people are so friendly. 


	3. Touch His Heart

Okay, this is the next chapter; I just put it up cuz I wanted to. I didn't get half as many reviews as I wanted. Please review ok? It makes a person feel so good. I will really not write anymore after this sobs I really am crying you know! Anyway, I'm kind of going to make fun of some of the more cliché things about gazing into eyes and stuff, no offence if you write like that. It's not that obvious.

Next chapter-

Seto simply pointed behind her back. Mai turned around and started laughing. Seto's face was expressionless but she got the feeling he as well was holding back laughter. "What a lo…lovely re..reason to... be miss..ing class"

Seto nods and a small grin came over his face, "Yes, that our teacher, our _boy_ teacher is flirting with our _boy_ principal."

That was exactly what was going on in the dark corner of the corridor, it was so dark that unless seen from Seto or Mai's place it would be invisible. "After seeing that I will never be able to listen to teachers when they talk about 'acceptable behavior in the corridor' quote unquote."

"What? You usually do?" asked Seto with an exaggeratedly surprised look on his face.

"Well, no. Not really." Mai stated

"If they don't stop flirting I'll call in the police on a charge of mental trauma" Seto exclaimed sending Mai into peals of laughter again.

"Stop doing that or I'll never stop laughing"

"Doing what?" Seto protested

"Looking at them!" replied Mai

"Done, but I still think they should..."

"Kaiba!"

"Yes, Mai?"

"Yes indeed Mai, perhaps you would like to tell the whole class too?" said their teacher who had just walked in.

"No sir. Actually, I wouldn't." replied Mai promptly, she was very rude to anyone she didn't like and this teacher did count as one in that group. Even though he was handsome the near-permanent frown repelled anyone who tried to get near him.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" asked the teacher though it was rather obvious he was surprised. 'Apparently no one's ever snubbed him before' thought Mai happily

"It means," Repeated Mai slowly and clearly, "that I would not appreciate sharing my private affairs with the rest of the class and I certainly will not share them with you"

Seto leaned over to Mai and murmured, "Full marks for making him angry, I almost started laughing at the expression on his face"

The teacher looked from one to the other with a thundercloud building on his face. Therefore it was very unlucky for the person who decided at that moment to announce his late arrival. It was Joey, the teacher turned on him and started saying, "Now how dare you be so late and…" Seto was thinking, 'He has cuts on his arms, was he fighting? He doesn't need this right now. How dare that man insult him?' Seto started talking to Joey "Are you alright?" he asked

Joey answered, "Ye…yes" in a shaky voice. He was thinking, 'This has got to be a dream! Not only did I win a fight over that big bully Taeto. Seto, Seto Kaiba is speaking with me' He waited for someone to say something before he realized that Seto and the teacher, Mr. Rocksweller were locked in a glaring competition. Finally Mr. Rocksweller gave in and said, "Joey, sit down and don't be late again." Joey looked around the classroom. He realized with a jolt that the only place left was on Seto's right side, opposite of Mai. He walked to the chair like one condemned, 'I know he helped me to get out of this mess, but that really doesn't ensure him being nice to me. In fact he'll probably be nastier just to cover it up' little did Joey know that he was right, Seto was at the moment deciding to ignore him just to make sure that no one realized that he had helped Joey. Joey sat down and took out his books, he gave Seto a small smile as if to thank him, but Seto looked down at his book quite pointedly even though inside he was blushing like nothing. After all, he was only a sixteen year old kid and he was in love, the two magical words at sweet sixteen. He wished, he really wished, he could just smile back and later dream about this wondrous moment. But unfortunately though the latter could be arranged, the former was out of the question. He could not risk ruining his image. Even _Mai_- matchmaker extraordinaire understood that! He just couldn't, he would have to stick to helping him without being noticed. But wouldn't it be so nice…'No, stop thinking about it.' Seto reminded himself, 'A breakdown in the middle of class would definitely not be the ideal way to get to his heart'. He started paying attention to what the teacher was saying; he needed to pass this class, didn't he! The teacher was at the moment scolding someone, _again_. Seto looked on in silent annoyance, 'Does he ever do anything else? I swear, I never learn anything new from this guy.' Mai on the other hand knew that already, so instead of paying attention she was doing something productive. Like glancing from Seto to Joey and noting the expressions on both faces, especially when they were taking 'subtle' looks at each other. Seto had more control than Joey so his were less frequent, but Joey eyes seemed glued to Seto's face. Mai stifled a giggle at the love-sick way they were looking at each other, 'After all, they are love-sick. How else would they act?' Thankfully the class was finished without any mishaps, at least not on the part of our three friends. The rest of the school day too was soon over without very significant trouble. The same, however, could not be said about the time after school. "I'm telling you guys, he would be a great person to get to know" Mai was saying

"Well, we have to try from tomorrow, you should have told us in the morning, Mai" was Malik's calm reply.

"I tried" Mai protested, "But I had to talk to Tea and there was no time at lunch"

"Well, that's ok" said Joey from the side, "It's not like it's the end of the world. You have the rest of two to three years to help him. What does one day matter?" He was skating backwards, being quite good at it he was confident he wouldn't fall.

"It does matter Joey" said Ryou in his gentle manner, "How?" demanded Joey

"Like they might ask why you di….LOOK OUT!" Ryou suddenly shouted. But it was too late. Joey was now sitting on the lap of one very surprised Seto Kaiba. Joey was going as red as an overripe tomato. Correction, a _very_ overripe tomato. Seto, for once, looked quite confused. His briefcase was locked and alright but the same could not be said about his bag and books. His bag was lying on the sidewalk a few feet away and his books were simply all over the place. And he was staring at Joey who had buried his face in the nearest thing available, which just happened to be Seto's shoulder. They remained like that for a few seconds before Joey finally got the courage to look up and the first thing he saw were captivating blue orbs gazing down at his own. So of course he had to go on gazing for what seemed like eternity but, again of course, was only a few seconds. They were interrupted, of course, by the well-meaning best friend a.k.a Yugi. He smiled oh-so-sweetly at them and asked, "Are you two alright?" obviously breaking the spell. They, understandably, blushed or at least Joey did and Seto put on that blank face that meant, 'I'm hiding my emotions and you don't know what', only if you look closely enough you will see a rosy look that wasn't there before and then if you inspect the circumstances you _do_ know what. Joey tried to struggle up but he didn't quite manage it, he whispered to Seto, "I'm sorry"

Seto's mask came off and a hint of a smile appeared he nodded, "It's alright". The two of them got up this time without a lot of trouble, but immediately after, Seto walked to the sidewalk, sighed to himself and started picking everything up. Joey hesitated then ran over to help him. He bent down to pick up one of the books at the same time as Seto; Seto looked at him, his eyes full of surprise. Joey smiled at him and Seto moved away to pick something else. Joey heaved a mental sigh of relief. 'God, I was afraid he would toast me'. They went on quickly picking up Seto's things quickly, Joey handed whatever he had collected to Seto. Seto said a small and nearly unheard "Thank you" and walked away. In a few seconds he was out of sight, but definitely not out of anyone's mind. Yugi was the first to speak, "Let's go or we'll be late getting home". He seemed to realize that something had happened and it did not concern him. He left it at that, 'I don't need to know anymore'. At these words the rest of the gang stirred and they were soon talking about trivial things again. Only Joey once or twice lost hold of the conversation, and Tea and Mai sympathetically covered for him. Seto at this time had already reached his office which had been his destination. He was thinking a lot, 'Shall I pass that off as temporary madness? Or shall I try to get closer to them? Of course, as far as I know, they wouldn't mind. At least Yugi, Malik, Ryou, Tea and Mai won't. I don't think Joey would either.' On the outside he was reading files carefully but on the inside he was thinking about what reaction he would get if he started being friends with the other 'Warriors'. After a while when he had nearly finished the office work, he stopped working altogether and dreamed about being happily together with Joey. He went into a trance-like state, not quite asleep but nearly. He had been thinking 'How would it be if _Joey was in love with me too?' Seto thought sitting at his desk going over some of the files. He sighed, "But it isn't going to happen so why torture myself over it? I'm even starting to talk aloud because of him, doing things I shouldn't." 'Because you want to, you want to love him and you want to shock everyone who said you were a living corpse. You want to show them what alive really means' his traitorous mind supplied. "Indeed" Seto said aloud again, "What is the point of saying, 'I won't think' when I know that the one thing impossible for a human is that." 'And when you can command yourself not to think then you really have lost your humanity, I'm human and I'll think of Joey and being friends with other people and being normal and having parents you can shift the whole blame to when things go wrong, or maybe pretend that the past isn't real. How many children know that the greatest thing parents do for us is taking the blame for everything while we're young and teaching us how to...how to take the blame later when they aren't there, but I'll try to stop thinking of Joey all the same. I don't love him'. He closed his eyes and tried to forget the sparkle of Joey's eyes and the beam on his face and the way that he seemed to brighten up any room he was in just by being there. 'No, I can't think of it'. Seto suddenly heard a scream, he jumped up and ran outside his office. Joey was lying there in a pool of blood, he seemed to have been....torn apart. Literally. Seto tried to take him into his arms but Joey seemed to be so far away, no matter how much he ran he just couldn't reach . "Is this what you want? You are tearing me out of your mind. This is what you're doing to me; soon you'll see that when you try to think of me the details will simply be out of your reach, you can't get them even if you want to. Then you will simply stop thinking of me, won't you?" Joey seemed to whisper this though Seto knew that from so far away he could not have heard a whisper. Joey disappeared, "I loved you, I loved the boy who would think of me all the time and do anything to keep me happy but I will love you no more, soon I'll be forgotten and I, too, will forget" Joey disappeared and Seto fell to his knees, crying, he was _sobbing silently and the tears were running down his face. Seto rubbed at them, 'Why am I crying?' "I wonder, whether I can hear from the real Joey, someday, that he, truly, loves me". Seto felt the vividness of the dream break his heart. 'What if it happens someday? That I forget him?' "But I can't, I won't" Seto whipped around in his chair when he heard the sound of the door opening. His eyes widened slightly when he saw the person entering, he started speaking, "Oh…

Cliffie's are the best creation for a review deprived author so yea, shrugs deal with it. Or prevent it. In case you didn't realize that the place in italics was a dream, well, it is. Guess who the person entering is? I dare you to guess. If you do guess, I'll tell you beforehand that you are right and also if someone does guess right, I'll have the next chapter up in two weeks (That is if there is a next chapter, and that depends on you).


	4. We Need A Plan

Next chapter, from now on I'm going to do my best to update at least once every two days. Sorry if I'm late.

_Recap_

_Seto whipped around in his chair when he heard the sound of the door opening. His eyes widened slightly when he saw the person entering, he started speaking, "Oh…_

…Mai, it's you again"

Mai nodded, "Yes, I had an appointment with my hairdresser, but he cut it off so I decided I would come here and start on the project. Are you likely to be free anytime soon?" Seto nodded, "In a few minutes."

In a silent agreement they followed the previous routine, Seto finishing his work at KaibaCorps. and Mai working on the project. After some time like this Mai unconsciously bit her lip, 'He looks sort of tired, why didn't I notice it before?' She opened her mouth several times in an attempt to open a conversation but she didn't know what to say. Suddenly Seto sighed and leaned back in his chair, "What do you want to ask? I thought I had already proved to you that I don't eat people"

Mai smiled, "I wouldn't want to risk changing your views on cannibalism."

Seto rolled his eyes, "You very nearly already have, so what's one more step?"

"The line between almost done and done?" gibed Mai

"I'm almost dying of curiosity and I'm not even a cat, you are though" Seto added as an afterthought.

"I resent that." Mai huffed, but then she added, "No I don't, cats are adorable and they are worshipped in Egypt as you should know, O Most Mighty Ancient Egypt Noble."

"At least you admitted that I'm mighty," Seto replied

"Oh no! So I did!" exclaimed Mai

"Well, yes. Isn't that what I just said?" asked Seto raising an eyebrow

"What was the point of this conversation anyway?" she asked

"Let me review" Seto replied and from inside the top left-hand drawer of his desk he took out a small micro-mini chip designed to be hidden perfectly in a man's hand. He fiddled around with for a few moments and then pressed a nearly invisible button on top of the chip and it started playing, it replayed their conversation from the very beginning. Mai simply gaped and Seto nearly grinned at the expression on her face, "Close your mouth or a fly will go in Mai" he said coolly

"Holy Cow Kaiba! What is that thing?" she asked looking at him but still stealing occasional glances at the chip on the palm of his hand. "This?" asked Seto smirking

"Yes Kaiba. That." replied Mai.

"It's a little invention of mine, it's a mini recording system, it has about 50 GB capacity with a mistake capacity of only 5. Since it's so small no one can see it, very useful gadget." said Seto looking at it absently

Mai whistled, "Tell me you're kidding?"

"Lying isn't on the top ten in my list of things-to-do today" was the answer

"What is it so useful for then?" she said

"You don't want to know"

"And if I do?"

"Then you won't find out in any case" he said coolly

"You are nasty, you know" she commented

"You find out now?" was Seto's reply

Mai made a non-committal noise when Seto spoke up again, "I'm done. Pack up quickly and I'll get us some juice to drink"

"Thanks Kaiba, run along now and lemme just finish this" replied Mai

"'run along'? 'lemme'? Your vocabulary has just decreased into the realm of the mut…" Seto stopped suddenly, he was reminded of the dream he had before Mai came in.

"What were you going to say Kaiba? Was it by any chance 'mutt'?" Mai asked slyly

"Forget about it," he said in a angry tone, "Just do whatever you are doing fast, I'll be back in a second," he said in an easier tone

Mai turned back to the dates she was noting, but she stared at him through the corner of her eye, 'He's going to crack soon, I hope Marik and the others will be able to help him. He respects Yugi a lot and a little healthy competition with Yami would be good for him. And he'll probably start thinking of Ryou as his surrogate little brother soon if I know anything about him,' then she sighed, 'Unfortunately, I'm nearly sure that I don't!'

Suddenly a hand appeared in front of her face, she screamed, "Ahhh!" and fell over, "What the..?" Seto's hand appeared in front of her as an offer of help, "You were staring off into dream-world and wouldn't answer me," he explained

"Tha…that is why you made me fall off my_ chair_?" she asked breathing deeply

"Obviously yes." he replied, then he added, "I'm expecting to see smoke coming out of your ears any second now, calm down."

"Calm down?" Mai repeated, "You are asking me to CALM DOWN? Just feel lucky I'm not pounding you with my handbag rich boy!"

Seto smirked, but it had the shadow of a smile in it, "You mean this handbag?" he held up a pink bag with golden stars on it

"How did you get that? You better not do anything with it, it's my favorite," she threatened

"It was lying beside you, I just took it." he explained, "And I don't intend to do anything to or with it, just get up and pack up will you?"

"Well, I would already be finished if it wasn't for a certain…" Mai began

"Puh lease Mai, tell me you aren't that childish," said Seto

"Caught it from you," replied Mai sticking her tongue out

Seto rolled his eyes, "Finished." Mai exclaimed

"Let's go then," Seto murmured preoccupied with his laptop

It was Mai's turn to roll her eyes, "Sometimes I wonder whether that thing isn't your child, and you're actually a cyborg from outer space! That would explain a lot!"

Seto simply nodded. Mai made a throttling motion with her hand, but Seto just nodded a second time. She sighed, "What are you looking at anyway?" Seto answered, "Files about another company," then he added, "Though I shouldn't be telling you that anyway."

Mai huffed, "Don't worry Richie Rich, I won't sell you out."

"Don't worry WHO?" Seto stared at her, laptop in his hand completely disregarded

"Oh, so that got your attention did it?" Mai smirked

"Well, duh Ms. Obvious, what was the name again?"

"Richie Rich," Mai slowly repeated, "He's a really nice boy who is the heir to the giant estate of the Rich's."

Seto nodded, "What are his parents like?" he inquired

"Nice," Mai laughed and added, "And a tiny bit stupid"

Seto nodded again, this time slower. "Oh, and his friends?" By this time they had reached the car, Seto held the door open for Mai then slipped in himself. He told the driver to go home. The car started moving and Mai started talking again, "His friends are a boy and a girl whom he loves. A dog named Dollar, and the butler of the household. It's really a kid's carton show"

Seto said, "I know, Mokuba watches it." in a surprisingly gruff voice. Mai turned around to look at Seto, she was surprised to see tears shining in his eyes. She was even more surprised as she felt herself knowing what to do, she said quietly, "You love him don't you?"

"Who?" he asked stubborn as always

"Joey," she answered, 'I have to know!'

He was silent, for so long that Mai thought he wouldn't answer, "Yes, yes I do" he said softly in wonder. Almost as if hearing it for the first time himself. "So won't you tell him?" Mai asked

"Not yet, I want to know he cares," was the reply

"Would you believe that he cares if someone else said it?"

"Maybe, but I wouldn't want to know it from anyone else. It wouldn't feel right," Seto looked at her and nearly smiled, a wistful look filled his face. The car screeched to a stop. They stepped out and went to the living room as before. They worked in a peaceful silence, like old friends. And indeed it felt like that. Soon after they had finished and Mai started stretching out on the sofa, a voice came into the room, "Big brother? I'm home!" Mokuba bounced into the room, his eyes sparkling with mischief. To Mai's surprise, Seto caught him and swung him around, "Hey li'l bro!"

Both were laughing in pure happiness, Mai sat quietly and watched. Seto set Mokuba down, "What happened at the park?"

"Oh, Seto it was so much fun. First we were at the water park and Tom fell into th…" Mokuba suddenly caught sight of Mai, "Oh hello!" Mokuba waved at her. Mai smiled and waved back, "Hello there, little man".

Mokuba bounced over to where she was sitting and asked her, "Why are you here?"

"Kaiba and I were working on a history project, we've finished now though!"

"Oh, that's great. Are you busy? If not you can come with me and big brother to the garden, it's really cool!" Mokuba exclaimed

Seto spoke up from behind them, "I'm sorry Mokuba but I can't go. I have to do some research work and well…" he shrugged, "Sometime later, alright?"

Much to Mai's astonishment, all Mokuba did was nod. She was looking closely at Seto when, "Sure, what about you Mai?"

Mai hurriedly looked back at Mokuba, "Oh, of course I'll go."

Mokuba took her hand, "This a-way," he said in a sing-song voice. Mai let herself be pulled along by the 'little man' as she had long ago dubbed Mokuba. They were pulled into a garden patch by Mokuba who beamed at Mai's, "Oh my!" The place was very beautiful. Filled with flowers exotic and local; of all colors and some, or rather most, of more than one color. The sun shone onto the pond nearby and the surface sparkled where it caught the sun's rays. Mai's eyes widened even more, everywhere were statues of duel monsters. On a platform in the middle of the water in a place of honor was a Blue-Eyes White Dragon and, Mai stifled a laugh, a Red-Eyes Black Dragon. If Mai didn't know better she would have thought the fighting pose that the Blue-Eyes had taken was to protect the Red-Eyes, but of course she knew better so she realized that it was to fight the Red-Eyes even though the Red-Eyes itself was not in a stance. She giggled, "Hey Mokuba, want to help me with something?" she had realized that since Seto wasn't going to confess to Joey until Joey confessed to him and Joey was too scared to make the first move, she was really going to need some help. 'Since Serenity isn't here, next best thing, which is quite as good, is Mokuba,' she had thought.

"Help you with what?" Mokuba asked curiously

"Getting your brother and his crush together?" replied Mai

"Wow! So who's the lucky guy?" Mokuba asked excited

Mai gaped at him, "You knew about Seto liking…?"

Mokuba shrugged, "Yeah, he told me the day he found out himself"

"Well, anyway it's Joey," said Mai smug at the fact that there was something Mokuba didn't know about Seto and she did.

It was Mokuba's turn to gape, "Joey? Are you sure?"

"Positively, got it from the lion's mouth," Mai affirmed

"My brother told you? Before he told me?" Mokuba looked hurt

"Actually he didn't tell me, I saw his diary and then bugged him until he said yes or no. And your brother is a truthful person so he said yes and here I am!"

"That's great. Of course I'll help. First thing is of course a party…" Mokuba started

"And lovely wonderful party games…" Mai continued

"Truth and Dare!" Both of them shouted together.

They started running inside to get everything ready when Mokuba suddenly stopped, Mai looked back surprised, "Hey little man, what's wrong? Got a cramp in your leg?"

Mokuba shook his head, "No, just a very good idea"

"For getting Joey and Kaiba together?" asked Mai

Mokuba nodded this time, "But we'll need another person's help. We can't do this alone."

Mai smiled, "No problemo," she replied, "Tea is going to help us anyway, and by the way Joey likes your brother too and she's the one who found out"

"That's great," Mokuba exalted, "Now all we need to do is make the proper plans!"

"Hey little man, I don't even know your great idea yet, spill will you?"

Mokuba looked around, "Good, nobody is here. My idea is...," he leant over to  
whisper

Oksie, next chapter out as soon as the next review is (laughs) Hope you enjoyed!


	5. We Have A Plan!

Next chapter here. Has it been too long? Didja miss me? Well, I'm back!

* * *

_Recap_

_Mokuba looked around, "Good, nobody is here. My idea is this…," he leant over to whisper_

* * *

"Let's have a masquerade," he finally said. "And we can set them up so that they get their last dance together, then they'll have to kiss!" Mai frowned contemplating, "One problem though, they're both boys so they won't take their last dance together." 

Mokuba smirked, looking uncannily like his brother while doing so, "Since most of the gang are boys we can use that as an excuse, we'll do a lottery and whoever picks chits with 'girl' written on it will have to dress up as a girl," he replied, "Absolutely 'random' of course," he added as an afterthought. 'All excepting Joey's and Seto's that is,' was the unspoken decision.

"And from then on we'll push them towards each other huh?" pondered Mai thoughtfully

"Yup!" Mokuba replied, "We'll ask Tea and see what she thinks of the plan"

"If she gives the green signal, then we'll go for it." said a convinced Mai

"So let's go and call her now," Mokuba suggested. Mai nodded yes and the two set out for the house, hidden by the tall grasses where they had been standing. They went in and sat near the living room phone; on Mai's old friend, the living room couch. Mai told him Tea's number, "Hello, may I speak to Tea? I'm a friend of hers." Mokuba said into the receiver.

"Speaking. Is it you Mokuba?" Tea replied from the other end

"Yea. Listen Tea, I need to talk to you. It's about my brother and Joey, do you think you could come over?"

"Sure," she checked her watch, "I'll be there in fifteen minutes, is that okay?"

"Fine," Mokuba told her. They hung up quickly and Mokuba turned to Mai, he opened his mouth but Mai nodded and said, "I heard, when is she arriving though?"

"In fifteen minutes," Mokuba informed her

"So let's start thinking of the décor," Mai suggested. "Do you have anything we could use to note ideas down?"

Mokuba nodded and said, "I keep a special book for that, it's in my room" with that he ran upstairs leaving Mai to her thoughts, 'Seto and Joey, what a couple. Will they work out or not?' she gazed at the white and brown theme of the room taking everything in. 'Does Joey really love Seto or is it puppy-love?' she stifled a laugh when she understood the involuntary pun she had made, 'Will Seto see Joey as a weakness and push him away? I hope not' She sighed. 'Where is Mokuba anyway?' she was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of the doorbell. She answered it since she was pretty sure that it was Tea arriving. She smiled at her, "Hey girl, how are you?"

"Never better," was the answer. Tea stepped inside and looked around, Mai smiled without realizing it. She had had a tiny crush on the girl in front of her ever since she had been beaten by her in Duel Monsters, but no one else knew, though she had a strange feeling that Yami Bakura had guessed. The way he would look at her every time she sat next to Tea, the small encouraging smile whenever she failed. It was a part of the albino yami that didn't seem to fit in, it made her realize how little she really knew about the past of a person she had already condemned. She started to fill Tea in on what she and Mokuba had decided; the girl listened and nodded, looking interested in the plan. Mokuba came into the room just when she had finished. "Hey Tea," he said from the stairs.

"Hey," Tea replied

"Sorry I took so long but I couldn't find it," he told Mai who gave him a swift smile. "I've just finished telling Tea about the masquerade idea," she said

Tea nodded and said, "It's a good plan, all we need to do is capitalize it."

Mokuba sat down on the couch on Tea's right side while Mai was on her left, they started discussing plans. After the better part of an hour, "So basically the theme will be on the Middle Ages? Any time from there? What about dressing Seto or Joey up as Guinevere and the other as King Arthur?"

Mokuba chuckled, Tea raised an eyebrow, "Why not? It'll attract them towards each other, and with Guinevere's face needing to be covered it'll become quite easy to keep their identities from each other."

Mokuba caught onto the spirit, "We can put on King Arthur's amour (1) on the other person. That'll make it nearly foolproof."

Tea nodded, Mai replied, "Yes but it'll still be pretty tough, we have to be careful!"

The three conspirators went on with their plans while one of the subjects was wondering about the other one, 'Seto, will you ever know how much I love you? I don't know why. Maybe it's because you're so cold, and I can warm you up. I can if you let me, please let me,' The person thinking this sighed, "Wishful thinking never got you anywhere, Joey Wheeler, maybe I should tell him…" the boy smiled wistfully, "Yes, and maybe pigs have wings." He turned over and took out a book from the drawer beside his bed, a book called _Pride and Prejudice_. He smiled; no one knew that he had a soft spot for romance stories and this book was one of his favorites though he did not like many others of Jane Austen. He licked a finger and turned the pages. He started reading; soon he was completely engrossed in the adventures, or rather misadventures, of Elizabeth and her four sisters. He never noticed when the pages began to blur and the bright green of the wall faded slowly into a comforting dark where there was only himself and his thoughts.

_Joey was running around in a forest, as if he was playing hide and seek and looking for a place to hide. But who from? He looked around and hid himself behind a chestnut tree. He heard a cry, "Ready or not, here I come!" he giggled quietly to himself, no one could find him here. Except one person, the person who at the moment had his arms around his waist and was smugly demanding a kiss for finding him. Joey sat down between the open feet of the person and rested his head against a hard chest looking up, straight into blue eyes that warmed up especially for him. "You want a kiss? Then take it!" he exclaimed teasingly. "Good idea," the other person said, not at all joking. Joey gazed up into twin blue pools and found himself safely resting in them, 'He won't let me go, he won't let me drown. Not even in his eyes,' he was thinking when warm lips closed over his own. After some time and a lot of teasing the lips left his own and a gentle kiss on his earlobe gave away his place, a soft voice whispered in his ear, "Do you love me?" Joey nodded, light-headed as he was, he would have answered so even if it was not true. The hands around him abruptly left and Joey fell to the ground, "You do?" the voice repeated, this time in a hard tone. "Then come find me and tell me so," he disappeared into the dense forest and Joey simply sat there stunned, elbows supporting his body legs stretched out in front of him. Then he jumped up and ran, ran as fast as he could, "Where are you?" he yelled turning this way and that, but there was no sign of anyone. Only the echoes of his own voice came to taunt him. He fell to his knees, exhausted and whispered, "Who are you?"_ Joey bolted upright on the bed in a semi-conscious state. When he finally had full consciousness he found himself drenched in sweat and panting as if he had run a race, a long race. The bright sheet on which he was sitting as well as the general bright atmosphere around his room contrasted with his melancholy state. His head dropped into his arms and he moaned despairingly, 'Feels like the worst hangover of my life!' his thoughts turned to his dream, 'It was so…vivid. What if it is a warning? That I have to tell Seto I love him.' it was a topic that would not stray from his mind for some time but at the moment the exhausted boy fell back onto the bed and went to deep, blissfully dreamless, sleep.

"So, in class then?" Malik asked.

Yugi nodded, "Yes, we all have gym together."

Ryou cut in, "But be careful, Seto's not the easiest person to get along with. Don't make him mad or we may lose our chance."

Joey snorted; they were walking to school today as they had decided the day before. "He's always mad, how do you guess if he's madder than usual?"

Yami Bakura, who was strolling along with Malik, Yami and Mai at the back wolf-whistled, "Smart thinking Wheeler, answer that if you will Ryou!"

Tea talked fast so that no one interrupted, "It doesn't matter, we'll handle it. And maybe you should walk properly Joey, remember what happened yester…" she started screaming a little too late. Once more Joey was on the lap of Seto Kaiba, one. This time he seemed more amused than surprised, "Twice in as many days pup? You should be more careful."

Yami raised an eyebrow, "Talk of the devil…" he held out a hand for Joey to take. Joey pulled himself up using it as leverage; the small spirit had a lot more spirit than most people assumed. Seto got up, and brushed himself off, "You were talking about me? Should I be flattered or wary?"

"Both Kaiba, both." relied Marik swinging the, thankfully still fastened, briefcase at him. He caught it with one hand, the other hand in the pocket of his trenchcoat, "Oh oh oh, sounds dangerous."

Ryou eyes were larger than a kitten's by this time, 'What the…?' he mouthed to his yami who simply shook his head and told Seto, "You seem to have quite a talent for loosing your so-called grace while Wheeler here is around."

"Hn," was the only answer he got.

"What?" this was Marik taunting him, "Back to monosyllables again _Kaiba_?"

"Well, no not really. Something must be done to drown out your voice, and the only way is to talk even louder so…" he shrugged

The three more innocent of the small crowd were watching with gaping mouths. The other two suspicious ones were simply waiting and watching. Joey at the side was staring off into oblivion at, Tea noted with amusement, Seto's face. Yami spoke up, "Indeed, I never thought I would be saying this so excuse me for the blasphemy, but I agree with Kaiba."

"You do, do you?" Marik growled out

Yami gazed at his nails while Seto answered, "Are you deaf or have you just lost the ability to understand English?"

"Assuming you actually ever had it, that is," Yami added

"Two against one isn't really fair so…," Yami Bakura trailed off smirking

"Two against two then?" asked Seto

"Not that that's fair either," Yami cut in, "Either of us against both of you would even the odds slightly"

"Whatever you say, Pharaoh," was Bakura's bored reply

"Oh you were saying something!" Marik exclaimed in a mock-surprised voice, "I thought you were just making the sounds you usually do"

"That would have been easier to understand for you correct?" Seto defended Yami, "Since you make those 'noises' all the time"

By this time they had reached the school and the hikaris had managed to hinge their jaws up more tightly. Seto separated from them to go to his homeroom though Joey decided to go a little later "So what was that all about?" Joey asked coolly enough though he was secretly jealous of the obvious closeness the three shared.

"Good question," Bakura shrugged and shared an odd look with Yami and Marik, the last of whom immediately turned away to, unsuccessfully, hide a snigger. Joey stared at them in confusion, "What bit _you,_ Marik?" Tea and Mai stared in slow comprehension and the hikaris simply stared. "Bit me?" Marik repeated, "Hmm… only a certain someone who is…

* * *

Who is what? I wonder…so do you I'm sure, I'll update as soon as I can and I'll try to make it much quicker this time. But I'm going on a trip from the 21st to the 31st, no laptops or such allowed.  
(1) I deliberately misspelled 'armor'. Amour means a secret lover. Don't ask, I have a very odd sense of humor 


	6. An Odd Day

Hey! I'm back! And here's the next chapter!!! Ta da!!!!

* * *

_Recap_

"_Bit me?" Marik repeated, "Hmm…only a certain someone who is…_

* * *

Chapter 6

…_trying,_" "And not succeeding". Someone muttered, "To hide his feelings for Mr. Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corps." Marik finished smirking

They were walking towards the general homeroom of the group

"What is that supposed to mean?" Joey answered coldly

"Whatever you wan…" Marik began when the teacher came in and everyone sprang to get into seats, Joey ran out of the classroom to get to his own. Detention wasn't anybody's favorite pastime. But the whispered conversation carried on far beyond the class. At lunchtime Joey furiously stormed into the cafeteria and went to the usual place of their group sitting deliberately as far away from the three yamis as was humanely possible. Yugi looked at the Joey and the other three. Marik looked amused, Yami Bakura looked careless and the other two faces were like dark thunderclouds. "Okay," Malik's voice suddenly cut through the tension, "What exactly happened?"

Joey didn't even bother looking up, Yami did but he went on gazing at something that wasn't there. Marik hesitantly started, "Well, we were talking about Kaiba and Yami said…"

"He started teasing Joey so they got into a fight." Yami Bakura quickly said. It was obvious that no one really wanted to explain. "Gym class is after this," Tea said. Mai nodded and said, "I suppose this hasn't changed your plans for Gym class today," she pointedly looked at Malik, Ryou and Yugi who shook their heads, "No, we still want to make friends with Kaiba," Marik replied nervously drumming his fingers on the table. Ryou smiled sweetly at him and said, "Calm down Marik, I'm sure it will go just fine." Yugi nodded his agreement, "What could go wrong?" he asked

"You really don't want to know." Malik muttered. The bell rang loudly and Marik jumped, "It's too late to think about that now," Yugi said, now looking a bit nervous himself.

"Of course it isn't, why don't we just put it off for another week…or two" mumbled Malik sinking his head into his hands.

Ryou shook his head, sighing and motioned to Yugi to help him take Malik to their next class. Joey had already left as soundlessly as he had come without anyone noticing. "Let's go," Yami Bakura said when Malik had finally got up and got ready. They ran to get ready, Mai and Tea went to the girl's gym lockers and the others went to the boy's gym lockers. Mai struggled to get the shirt over her head, "Stupid thing," she muttered, "It's not like I like Gym anyway, the only reason I'm coming is to see that Kaiba doesn't freeze up."

"I know," Tea said, "I like Gym though, it's better than geography"

"How can you say that?" Mai exclaimed

"I'm horrible at geography Mai, does that explain it?" Tea laughingly replied

"I guess…I could help you, you know." Mai said smiling slightly

"That would be great, I know you get good marks in that subject," Tea said and the two went out together, Tea's right arm around Mai's shoulders. They reached the class to see that they were the last people, Mai's eyebrows rose alarmingly as she glanced around the class; she whispered to Tea, "Look at where Joey and Kaiba are sitting," Tea nodded without talking, Joey was just beside Seto. The two had obviously been paired up as partners. Tea and Mai sat down cross-legged at the end of the line, since they were the last; they would have to be partners. Not that they minded. The Gym teacher started speaking; her booming voice was loud enough to overcome all the chatter in the room. "Now, listen up," she said, "Whoever are your partners for today will be your partners for the rest of the school year," there were quite a few groans and some whoops, Tea and Mai threw their arms around each other and Joey went a bright scarlet. No one knew what Seto was thinking. Mai could guess but she didn't bother, she was too preoccupied with thinking of what they were going to do. 'I hope its aerobatics, Tea's good at those so she can help me.' she thought

Unfortunately for Mai, it was not. They had Karate practice, "This isn't happening" Mai said disbelievingly. Mai wasn't exactly the best in Karate. Fortunately for Mai, the teacher called out, "The best two students of our class will now give a display"

Mai heaved a sigh of relief; Tea leaned over and whispered to her, "The best two are Malik and Kaiba. They aren't the best of friends but I think this may help us in getting to know him better."

Mai pointed towards the gym mat in front of them, both of them were already set up and in stances. Nearly everyone in the class was craning their necks eagerly; this was one match that was meant to be. The minute their teacher blew the whistle they started moving, fists and legs were everywhere but they moved with grace. It ended as it had started- with a whistle. There was no winner and no loser and that seemed to infuriate Seto. He glared dangerously at Malik and the rest of the students but his eyes seemed to have flickered over one person sitting, silent among screams. In the class yet not. "Good fight, Kaiba," Malik said after they had finished, Seto didn't even acknowledge him. He picked up the coat that he had dropped and asked the teacher, "May I leave?" it was obviously a sentence more than a question and the teacher nodded. He went out coolly without a glance in anyone's direction. Malik turned to the others with confusion and desperation in his eyes, he mouthed, 'What did I do?' Joey stood up and told him quietly, "You didn't do anything, that's just the way he is. You shouldn't have assumed that he would open up so easily." In the confusion no one noticed the group of friends.

"Especially to us," Ryou said from behind

"But we won't give up," said Yugi in his determined way.

Tea smiled and nodded, but Mai refused to look at anyone, 'Kaiba won't let anyone get near him that easily, I need to help.' "But how?" she exclaimed out loud in annoyance. Everyone around her stared at her, "How what, Mai?" asked Ryou in his sweet voice

Mai ignored the stares, "I'll talk with you guys later," she said and ran out of the room in the direction Seto had gone. She caught up with him in a few minutes, even though he had had a head start he wasn't really looking to get away from people and she was running. "Kaiba!"

"Yes, Mai?" he looked annoyed at being called

Mai didn't care; she was quite annoyed herself, "Why did you run out like that?"

"I didn't run," he informed her

"Not literally but you did," she replied

"Why would I run? Who would I run from?" he snapped

"I don't know!" she cried

"I don't care what you think," he told her, "I'm going"

That over they turned their backs on each other and went opposite directions. Mai back to the gymnasium to meet her friends, Seto to his next class to calm his mind. He stifled a groan when he saw what it was, history. 'I can't face Mai again, after all she is right. And if I stay with her she'll make me admit it.'

He quickly walked to the class, when he entered not even the most studious geek had arrived. He sat down with his head in his hands and thought over the whole situation until the rest of the students arrived. He ignored, and was ignored by, Mai. The tension was so thick you could have cut it with your finger, not a moment too soon the class ended and school as well. Seto went to pick up Mokuba from the Domino Elementary School a few blocks away and found that there was a twist in the tale. "_What _did you say to Mai?" Mokuba demanded

"Nothing," Seto replied

Mokuba slipped into the car beside Seto, "Big brother, she just phoned me and told me she doesn't want to talk about it but she can't come over this evening."

"So that means I said something to her?" Seto said

"I talked with her for some more time and I figured that the problem was with you." Mokuba said

"We didn't agree over something, that's all," Seto replied

Mokuba looked at him thoughtfully, "Make it up to her big brother," he said suddenly

Seto looked at him, then he nodded, "But I don't know how to, and I won't apologize to her." he added the last part firmly

Mokuba hugged him, "I know you won't big brother, that's out of the question. Let's put it this way, Mai, Tea and I wanted to throw a masquerade but none of their places are big enough. Also since most of our friends are boys we want to hold a lottery so that there are an equal number of sexes."

"So you want me to throw it at our house and you want me to attend?" Seto asked flat-out

Mokuba nodded. Seto shrugged, "If it pleases you and soothes Mai…"

"Thanks bro," Mokuba smiled at him

Seto smiled back at him. They had reached their home so Seto got out of the car and held it open for Mokuba; he nodded to the driver to leave. They went in and Seto opened his laptop, booting it up to get it ready for work. Mokuba told the cook to get some snacks for both him and Seto and sat down with his home work. A peaceful atmosphere took over and if you didn't know the underlying turmoil you could almost feel as if you were in a real family, with a mother and father who loved their children the most in the world. But it wasn't, soon the food arrived and Mokuba finished his work. "Big brother?" he called

"Yes, Mokuba?" Seto replied

"Can I go and call Mai now? I'm sure if I said that you had agreed then she would come over today." Mokuba said

Seto nodded, "If you've finished all your school work, then yes. Ask the cook to make you two some snacks, alright?"

"Sure," Mokuba ran to the corner table where a red hand-held telephone was kept. He typed Mai's number (which he had memorized) in. He whispered something into the receiver, "Yeah, fifteen minutes then?" an answer from the other side and Mokuba said, "Call her too," something else, "Bye then."

Mokuba went out of the room and Seto could hear him talking, "Prepare snacks for three people, thank you."

Seto went on typing; all his home work had been finished in school. Not as if he didn't have the time to do it, he already knew most of the things the teachers taught. Mokuba told him, "Please would you open the door if Tea or Mai drop in early? I need to take care of some things in my room."

Seto noted the extra name but he nodded anyway, it wasn't as if he himself was going to spend time with them. Mokuba pranced upstairs, 'Knowing my luck they probably will come while Mokuba is upstairs,' Seto thought. Certainly, Seto seemed to have put his finger on the right spot since a few minutes later the bell rang impatiently and Seto was the only one downstairs. He went and opened it and sure enough, Tea with a bright smile and Mai with her usual grimace were waiting. "Hi Kaiba," Mai said, Tea just nodded. "Come in," Seto replied. When Mokuba didn't come down for some time Tea said she would go upstairs to look for him. Mai asked Seto hesitantly, "So, how's the company?"

"Fine, everything's fine." Seto said just as slowly. Suddenly they looked up and at each other and the tension disappeared, Mai smiled, "Today was really weird. Anyway, since you've agreed to host the party, we wanted to make it this Saturday since after that is the beginning of the summer vacations. We could make it a sort of end of the term party."

Seto nodded, "That's all well and good but how come I'm getting a definite bad feeling about this?"

Mai looked at him innocently, "I don't know, how come?"

Seto looked at her suspiciously, "Well, I did say I would host this party. What's done is done." A voice came from upstairs, "I found him"

"You mean; _I_ found _you,_" came another voice.

"I'd better go," Mai told Seth, who nodded.

Mai skipped upstairs where the owners of the two voices were arguing about who had found who. "Okay people!" Mai called, "I don't care who found who, all that matters is that you're both here" 'Or maybe not,' she thought as they went on fighting. She blew a whistle with her fingers and Mokuba fell over while Tea simply gaped in amazement. Mai smiled sheepishly, "Well, I was bored so I got Tristan and Joey to show me how to do it," she said when they looked as if they wanted an explanation.

"Oh," said Tea

"Anyway, I've already got the results of the lottery done out," said Mokuba, "Now we just have to send them out. The results are written right here." He handed them a list. On the list was written…

* * *

I'll tell you what was written next chapter alright? Is it just me or does this seem like a unconnected sequence of events? 


	7. Mokuba's Crush

_

* * *

_

_Recap_

"_Anyway, I've already got the results of the lottery done out," said Mokuba, 'Now we just have to send them out. The results are written right here," He handed them a list. On the list was written..._

* * *

Chapter-7

Girl- Boy

1. Yugi- Yami

2. Tristan- Duke

3. Mai- Tea

4. Mokuba- Damon

5. Joey- Seto

6. Yami Bakura- Bakura

7. Marik- Malik

They had been walking and had reached Mokuba's room. They sat on his bed and talked.

"Sorry for making you a boy, Tea," Mokuba apologized, "but I didn't think you wanted to be paired up with Tristan or Duke," The two girls sitting near him were too busy laughing to answer him; perhaps they didn't even hear him. Who can tell? "Oh God, Mokuba! Why did you put Yami Bakura and Marik as girls?" Mai exclaimed, rubbing tears from her eyes

"I personally do not blame you but…," Tea nearly broke into peals of laughter again but contained herself just in time.

Mokuba smiled mischievously, "Bakura and Malik are too nice to mention the small fact that those two are too domineering for their own good so I thought I would give them some blackmail material. And even if they don't use it," he shrugged, "I can use it for them, you know. A bit like their lawyer," he looked at the older girls with an innocently serious face which broke them up again and this time Mokuba as well was screaming with laughter.

"I couldn't put my brother as a girl because it was hard enough to convince him to come at all. As a girl…? I don't think he would say no if I asked but better not to take the risk" Mokuba said after he had finished laughing

"You likeDamon a lot don't you Mokuba?" Mai asked going over the list once more.

Mokuba blushed, "Kinda, well a lot," he said when he saw the disbelieving look the other two were sending him, "How do you know him anyway?" he demanded

"Don't you remember the day all of us went to the spring carnival together?" Tea asked

"Oh, yeah, I'd forgotten. I was distracted that day and didn't notice," Mokuba said

"I wonder why," Mai muttered, then she smiled and said, "He's a good kid and very kind, I'm sure it'll work out between you two. Why have you put yourself as a girl though? I wouldn't have done that."

"It hasto do with something he said to me once...it's private really." Mokuba said, actually Damon had told him that he would look pretty sweet dressed up as a girl, besides, if he made Damon a girl he would have to explain everything and, 'Will he even come after that?' he had wondered and decided against the idea.

Theytook the hint."So, now that the actual so-called lottery is over. How are we going to tell them?" Tea asked taking pity on Mokuba and changing the subject.

At this point there was a knock on the door, a footman came in and delivered, "the snacks Master Mokuba had ordered,"

They continued from where they had left off. "Why tell them at all? We can just write down a formal invitation for each couple and send a date list in each for the girl. You know, like the olden times." Mai urged

"And we can have a buffet and all, I think I've saved up enough to do that," Tea said, "And we'll have a ball dance and a couple dance at the end so that whoever is dancing together must kiss,"

"And we'll make sure that brother dearest and Joey are dancing together," Mokuba finished

Mai said, "Don't worry about the cost, I'm more than capable of taking care of it, as you well know, Tea. And we'll make it a necessity that every one has to dance in the last dance and since the rest of us are paired off it'll be quite simple getting Joey and Kaiba to dance together," she had glared at Tea once in the middle, how dare she think of giving up her savings! Everyone knew that she wanted to use them to go to a dance school.

"That's settled. Now wait, I'm nearly sure that I have some glitter paper lying around. And I still haven't forgotten the King Arthur and Guinevere idea." Mokuba said

Tea looked at him, "Why would you have glitter paper lying around?" she asked ignoring the other comment.

"I don't think I want to know, Tea," Mai stated looking at Mokuba's reddening face

"You really don't," Mokuba told her.

He got some plain paper and some paper with dark-green glitters on them. He also got some envelopes. "Obviously I've been stocking up for this party," Mokuba said shrugging when Tea commented on the prompt way in which he got them.

"There is that," she conceded. He also got some sketch pens, pencils, scissors, etc.

Mokuba kept the things between the three of them in the bed. "Now what?" he asked. Tea looked thoughtful, "Why don't we cut the plain paper into the shape of the words and stick them on the glittered paper and color them over with the sketch pens?"

Mai nodded, "Sure, it'll look cool but what do we write?"

"Um…what about this?" said Mokuba scribbling something on a piece of paper and muttering under his breath. When he finished he showed the paper to the two of them. On it was written –

_You (fill in name), are cordially invited to the Masked Ball taking place at the Kaiba House at eight o' clock on Saturday. You must dress up as a girl/boy. You will meet your partners inside the ballroom._

_Thanking you,_

_The arrangers of the ball: M. Trio_

"Just one mistake," said Mai grinning, she took the pencil and cutting out the _House_ wrote in its stead- _Mansion._

"Let's get to work then," Tea exclaimed and pulled one white page, one glittered one and a scissor towards her and set to work with a vengeance. The other two watched her for a few minutes before following her. They worked steadily for some time occasionally munching the sandwiches, etc. that Mokuba had asked for. In the matter of an hour or so they had finished and they had sent all of them off in merry blue envelopes.

"And that's that," Mai exclaimed making a motion with her hands as if she was dusting them off.

"Uh huh," mumbled Mokuba stretching his hands. Tea fell back on to the headboard of the bed, "I think my fingers are broken…" her voice drifted off.

"Wake up sleeping beauty," Mai said laughing and waving a hand in front of Tea's face.

"I don't want to," Tea mumbled, "It's so soft here,"

"Tea, I'm not strong enough to carry you out of this place," Mai began but Tea had already fallen asleep.

"Maybe I should ask my brother to let her stay for the night?" Mokuba suggested

"No," Mai sighed, "I promised her mother that I would make sure she got back home. I'll have to carry her. Just open the doors for me please?" Mokuba nodded and walked in front of her as she picked Tea up; bridal style. As she carried Tea to her car Mokuba waved to her from behind, she smiled and nodded and turned to the front door of the car, she fumbled around, locking Tea between her knee and the door. In the middle of this panorama Tea woke up, with difficulty she managed to get up on her feet and yawning, asked Mai, "What's going on?"

Mai explained what had happened after Tea fell asleep, "…you should have seen Seto's face when he realized that I was walking around his house at this time of the night along with his little brother whom he had thought to be in bed, he said that I nearly gave him a heart-attack," Mai laughed. Tea laughed too. "But it is late, we should really…," her words were punctured by another yawn, "…get home,"

Mai opened the door of the passenger seat on the other side and let Tea enter. She herself got into the driver's seat. Tea fell asleep in the car and soon she was cuddling up against Mai's side, "Too cold," she mumbled.

Mai turned up the heater in the car and soon she was alright. They reached Tea's home and Mai apologized for their lateness. She carried in Tea and left her on the couch and she left the house with increasing thankfulness that Tea's parents were so nice. She went home and fell straight asleep without even bothering to eat, the 'snacks' she had had at the Kaiba house was enough for her.

----------

Joey cursed so colorfully that it would have made everybody and their grandmother blush, "Hello?" he snapped into the phone

"No," he said even more irritably after a moment, "Yes, I would thank you to let me go to sleep now!" he slammed down the phone. "Honestly, waking someone up at…" he checked the digital clock on the table beside the phone and groaned, "…four o' clock in the morning and on top of that it was a wrong number. For once I was having a sleep without Se…" he hesitated then went on, "Seto in it and now I probably won't be able to go back to sleep," he was still grumbling but a child with water on the brain could see that his heart wasn't in it.

The brief pause had cooled him down. Now he was thinking more calmly, mind you not that it was such a good thing. He went carefully up the stairs the cold night air stinging his toes, back to the warmth of his bed. In three hours time the poor boy had nearly gone back to sleep again he heard the doorbell and a gruff voice calling, "Mail!"

The poor boy gave it up and tramped downstairs thinking, 'There's a conspiracy against me, a world-wide conspiracy starting with the alarm-clock then my dreams, the phone and now the mailman! All to keep me from going to sleep.'

Needless to say the mailman was not greeted with a sunshine smile. Joey grabbed the letter out of his hand and without acknowledging that he wanted Joey to sign something he closed the door softly on the mailman's face and went up to his room to sit and read the letter in peace.

_You, Joey Wheeler, are cordially invited to the Masked Ball taking place at the Kaiba Mansion at eight o' clock on Saturday. You will dress up as a girl. You will meet your partner inside the ballroom._

_Thanking you,_

_The arrangers of the ball: M. Trio_

The only thing he could say was, "Huh?" 'Who are the M. Trio? What does M. Trio stand for anyway?' he wondered. The same thought was on the minds of ten other people, namely, Yugi, Yami, Bakura, Yami Bakura, Marik, Malik, Tristan, Duke, Rebecca. Seto too was wondering what M. Trio stood for but he had a very good idea of who they were. The rest just curbed their impatience; they would have to wait till Saturday.

* * *

I know this chapter was short and it had little to no Joey/Seto action, but I want to set the pace for Tea/Mai too. Don't worry theirs won't be explicit. And this chapter was more of an interlude than anything else. I'll update as soon as I can but the next two weeks are test week in my school. Sorry for being so late with this but wasn't letting me upload T-T 


	8. Aphrodite Strikes?

sango16- Yeah, Damon is an OC, I thought it would be plenty weird if Mokuba was the only one with a crush on someone not his own sex, and I like the name Damon…so hope you have no problem with it.

This chapter is dedicated to one of my best friends, Subarno. Without him I don't know whether I would ever have started this chapter. So anyone who actually likes this story had better thank him. I tried to make this chapter as good as I possibly could.

Thanks to all those on who pointed out that the fifth chapter hadn't shown up.

* * *

_Recap_

_The rest just curbed their impatience; they would have to wait till Saturday_

Chapter 8

Blindingly brilliant. Literally. Most of the guests couldn't see anything for at least half-a-minute when they came in. The whole place was decked out in white lights and there were different painted murals on different walls some Roman; some Greek and some Egyptian, props were placed strategically. There were heavy curtains in front of the windows and doors to give a luxurious look. A table was dressed in white clothes and made up like the Sunday market of days long gone. This was the buffet table. The caterers were dressed up like street hawkers.

'The lights make the whole thing look slightly unreal, like a stage,' thought Joey, 'Well, all the world's a stage and one man in his time plays many parts, but how many play the part of a woman?' he wondered ruefully looking down at the long blue dress he was wearing, gold bands were on his wrists and he wore sandals.

His blonde hair that he had been growing out was twisted into an elegant bun at the top of his head. He wore a blue eye mask matching with his dress. He was supposed to be Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Tea had insisted he would be perfect for it with his blonde hair, 'but goddesses are supposed to be so elegant and charming, I'll probably trip over my dress and scream at a few people before the night is over.' Joey thought despairingly

"Hey, over here lady," called a small slip of a girl with dark hair to her waist, she had a midnight blue; or was it black? dress on and she was running towards Joey. Joey frowned, wasn't this girl slightly familiar?

But he had no time to think of it as a card was shoved into his hand, "It's a dancing card," the girl explained panting, "if someone asks you for a dance they have to write their names down for the dance they want. All the girls have it," she said waving hers around helpfully, "You were the last one," was she a girl?

'She sounds like she could be either and she's too young to have developed yet,' thought Joey paying only minimal attention to what she was saying.

He stopped really listening after 'dancing card' he knew what a dancing card was, what did everyone thing he was? A stupid mutt?

He looked around, since that girl or boy had said that he was the last 'girl' to arrive almost everyone else must have come. 'Who's my partner anyway? I have to find him and kiss him at midnight! Pfft!' he thought, 'I'll ditch him and go look at the moon, I won't kiss anyone other than Seto, and what are the chances of this guy being him?' Joey shook his head, the chances were not worth thinking about.

He gazed at his card, not many classical dances just the usual pop and some famous soft music, 'My God!' he winced , 'Celine Dion is alright but not on a speaker system, she's quite capable of breaking a few windows.'

"Seto had better have quality glass for the water glasses, I don't particularly want one breaking in my hand." He added aloud to himself

"What's the matter?" a cheerful voice said from behind him, "What's all this about breaking glass?"

Joey turned to see a standing with a glass, Blonde-hair was pulled back by a bandana and he had kohl in a spidery scrawl from his eyes. A gold ring could be seen on his tongue; he was wearing black clothes all over. One hand was holding up a glass the other hand was on his waist and a black eye mask was hanging from it currently. The oddly pale skin glowed against the bright lights. Joey frowned, then he started hesitantly, "Ma…Malik?" if he guessed rightly then the pale skin was because of face paint.

The man nodded and replied, "The only two other people with complete blonde hair is my Yami and Joey. Since nothing around here looks like it has been broken, though I'm not quite sure…" he gazed pointedly at a peculiarly disproportionate vase, "I'll assume you're Joey?"

Joey nodded, "Who are you supposed to be?" he asked, "You look like Kyo…" there was a slightly questioning note

Malik nodded, "Yeah, Kyo from Dir en grey. Hey, do you know who any of the others are?"

Joey shook his head, "No chance, anyone I asked was so secretive you would think it was a National Secret or something."

Malik laughed, "Me too. All except Marik that is, he was quite descriptive about his. I gathered he wasn't very pleased about it." Joey laughed as well, "No, I heard him. He was talking in very uncomplimentary terms about the mysterious M. Trio."

"And that's the other thing, who are they anyway? And how did they get _Kaiba_ to throw a Masquerade?" Malik asked. Joey was about to answer when he stopped short. Malik looked at him inquiringly and he simple pointed behind Malik who turned to see what he was pointing at.

A breathtaking sight, a (genuinely) pale boy had just come into the room. He was wearing black all over, black jeans and black tight pants. He had one earring on his left ear. He had a black cape on him; he wasn't wearing it the usual way. It was stuck so that it fell half to the front and hid one hand giving a definite air of mystique. The cape was stuck on to a collar, which had small metal spikes on it. He had a dark red eye mask with brown bangs falling on top; he also had boots on. His eyes were completely hidden. All in all it was all made to create an air of suspense and inscrutability. It didn't help that he made no sound while walking and had a sardonic smile on his face. Nope, definitely didn't help. Fangs on his front teeth revealed what he was supposed to be.

"And I thought that vampires were a stale topic," Malik remarked to Joey in an undertone. Joey nodded speechlessly; his reaction was echoed by most of the other occupants of the room.

"Wanna go talk to him?" Malik nudged him, Joey sighed, "Why not? Though it might not do much good." The duo walked towards the boy who was in practically everyone's mind but standing alone. While they walked Malik fumbled to put on his mask.

They were finally in front of the boy, "Uh…hello," Joey said, trying to make his voice as girlish as possible. It didn't work very well, but the boy didn't seem to have recognized him. 'If he ever knew me at all that is,' Joey reminded himself, 'After all, Mokuba also has invited some people I don't know.' The boy tilted his head then inclined his head a little, "Hello," he replied.

Marik glanced from one to the other, a sudden mischievous light came into his eyes. He tiptoed away unnoticed by the other two.

Joey was sure he had heard that voice before, 'Could he be one of the gang and I just can't recognize him?' he wondered

"Have a drink," the boy offered suddenly holding out a glass to him. Joey accepted it, "Thanks," he said and sipped at it. The boy was holding another drink, which Joey assumed was his own. "Don't mention it," the boy replied, the deep voice making even these simple words sound sensual. "What are you supposed to be anyway?" he added, "Venus?"

Joey laughed, "No, but close. I'm Aphrodite. Not a very good one mind you but then again maybe a bad Aphrodite is better than none."

"Why can't we do without Aphrodite?" the boy demanded

"Because what is there except love? We do everything for the sake of love- love of ambition, love of parents, love of a sibling…" his voice trailed off. The first song started softly playing in the background.

The other boy shook his head dubiously and murmured, "But love is so complicated. Sometimes it just doesn't seem worth it."

"Why such a morbid outlook on life?" Joey asked, "Sure love is tough but so is anything that's worth the trouble. There's nothing such as a free lunch."

The boy looked up and smiled charmingly, "Well, maybe you're right. Meanwhile, any chance of me having the honor of a dance?"

Joey found himself blushing though the offer was surely made out of boredom and no personal reasons, "Let's go," he replied offering the boy his arm, the boy took it and they moved to the middle of the dance floor. The song going on was 'Like A Prayer,' and Joey found himself having lots of fun dancing. His dance card was in his hand but it was forgotten.

That is, it was forgotten until the song ended and the two of them went back to their seats laughing. Then the mysterious boy grabbed at the card and filled up all the dances with his name except the last one, the couple dance would be danced by couples already selected by the M. Trio. He then said, "I apologize to every other male here tonight but after having the luck of capturing the loveliest partner here I would be a fool indeed to let her go." He added with a teasing smile, "Or rather let him go, no?"

Joey sighed and said, "The game's up isn't it? Yes, I'm a boy. You were so nice that I felt I had at last found a sane person in this theatre"

To Joey's great surprise the boy burst out laughing, "Yes," he said after he had stopped, "It does seem very much like a theatre doesn't it? Perhaps the effect was created by the M. Trio on purpose." Noticing Joey's disbelieving stare at this suggestion he went on, "You see, while it is true that being on a stage inhibits you it's also true that because nothing there is real and it'll all become undone later you have a different type of freedom on stage. The kind of freedom that will make you act without thinking."

Joey bit his lower lip and thought about it, "You're right," he replied, "but somehow I can't believe that they would be that malicious."

The boy shrugged, "Maybe they are, maybe they're not." He took a sip of his drink which he had left in a chair before moving to dance, "All I know is that they are the ones who set the background for tonight's play. And the actors are completely unprepared!" he finished his drink and gazed morbidly into the glass. There was still a bit of red left at the bottom.

Joey was quiet for a moment, 'When he puts it that way it all seems to make sense. Yet…'

The next song started, the boy placed an arm around Joey's waist and pulled him gently towards the floor. This one was a slow song and it suited his mood, 'both their moods,' Joey corrected himself as he looked at the boy opposite him. Eyes closed, he was gently swaying to the music as if the beat was in his heart and soul.

'Who is he anyway?' Joey pondered, 'I never asked his name. Not that I should either, in a Masquerade.' He suddenly tripped and fell, right into the other boy's arms. Joey groaned loudly, "And here was I thinking that this sort of thing only happened around _him._" He was speaking more to himself than the other boy but the boy asked anyway, "Who is this 'him'?"

Joey growled in frustration, "Let me stand up on my own feet and I'll tell you"

The boy let go of him, Joey stood up and started brushing himself off. "So, who is this 'him'?" the boy asked again

"Persistent, aren't you?" Joey replied

"Hasn't your mother ever taught you not to answer questions with questions?" the boy said playfully

"No," Joey said tersely, "She wasn't exactly there when I was young,"

The boy asked respectfully after a moment, "I'm sorry. Dead or…," it was a question

"Divorce," Joey answered shortly

"I'm sorry," the boy repeated

"That's alright," Joey said, "Can we just sit out the rest of this dance?" he added after a moment

"Yes," the boy took hold of his hand and led him back towards their seats.

All this time three pairs of eyes had watched them from the darkness beyond the curtains. An eerie voice spoke up, "First Stage?"

The two others responded, "Accomplished," and all three laughed.

* * *

Next chapter will be the absolute last chapter and Joey and Seto might get together, unless this mysterious 'boy' interferes that is. And who are these three? Mai, Tea and Mokuba are the M. Trio. Right?

I'm really sorry this isn't the last chapter but I've spent too long trying to go onwriting. I'm also sorry it took so long to get it out. All I can say is that it wasn't my fault. My computer was reformatted and I lost all my files. _Then_ I lost connection to the Internet and all hope of getting the files back. Thankfully, (and hopefully) all problems are solved now.


	9. The End of the Beginning

Okay, last chapter alert! (Beep Beep) An extra special (and extra big) chapter as an apology for getting it out so late. Thanks to all the people who kept me writing this story even when I was depressed. **Special Thanks to _Lucamin-_** If you're still reading then, it was really nice of you to review like that. And no way would I ever abandon this, especially not after all that encouragement. I hope you don't either.

* * *

_Recap_

_The two others responded, "Accomplished," and all three laughed_

* * *

'Aphrodite and a vampire, such a mismatched pair,' 'Aphrodite' mused, 'Then again, maybe Aphrodite has a habit of picking unusual pairs. It would certainly explain, "Opposites attract"' 'She' fiddled with his glass, after the conversation on the dance floor 'she' and 'her' partner had been in a rather uncomfortable silence. 'She' looked around for people 'she' might recognize, 'she' smiled when he saw 'Kyo' with 'Queen Elizabeth' who was actually Marik.

Suddenly a waiter came up to them and said something about a number, "Sir and miss, you will need these numbers later. Please keep them carefully or else memorize them," she cautioned. Both of them nodded and took the aforementioned numbers.

"What do you think these are for?" the 'vampire' asked

"Could be for anything really," 'Aphrodite' replied

Then 'her' eyes fell on another couple and 'she' frowned, it was that strangely familiar girl again and there was someone else with her. Her date, 'Aphrodite' assumed.

'Either they both have the same sort of illness as Yugi and I just never noticed them or else they are both Mokuba's friends' wondering on it 'Aphrodite' decided on the latter choice. 'She' was about to move over and ask the two of them their names (not that 'she' thought it would work but he had to do _something_) when someone tapped on 'her' shoulder. 'Aphrodite' blinked and turned a blank gaze on 'her' new friend. "Hmm…?"

The brown-haired boy sighed and shook his head, "You've been glaring at that couple so hard that if looks could kill, both of them would be six feet under."

'Aphrodite' shrugged, "That girl's been bugging me throughout, I dunno why but she seems familiar,"

The boy smiled, "I thought _I_ was the one bothering you throughout the party." He said in a teasing voice, then more seriously, "How has she been bothering you?"

"Well," 'Aphrodite' started, "She hasn't exactly been bothering me but I keep on running into her and sometimes I see her looking at me with this weird smile…" 'her' voice trailed off and 'she' looked at 'her' partner, who was frowning worriedly, with a confused look on his face.

And someone from across the room noticed it very well and was quite gleeful about it. "Hey!" the 'girl's' date called angrily, "Yeah?" a quite boyish voice replied.

"Did you invite me to this party just to stare at that girl? Man, anyone would think that you had a crush on the girl the way you've been stalking her the whole night!"

The other one shook his head in denial, "No way Damon. I just…I'm…oh, I'm really sorry but I have to do this foreveryone's sakeand I guess I want them to be happy and i don't..."

Damon stopped him with a raised hand, "You're blabbering Mokuba, maybe you have some problems? If you do then I'll leave you alone until you're over this promise or whatever you made to follow this guy. After that if you feel like you want to actually talk to me then I'll be at this balcony" He beckoned at the nearest balcony and without waiting for an answer the redhead turned around and moved to his specified location.

Maybe it would have been better if eye masks weren't invented? Maybe then Damon would have seen the hurt in Mokuba's eyes and stopped, and perhaps Mokuba wouldn't have made up his mind to never confess his love. Cruel World!

Mokuba rubbed out the tears determinedly from his eyes; he had a job to do.

He moved towards a cowgirl and a cow'boy' sitting together and talking and laughing on seats near the music box. Both were dressed in blue pants, the cowgirl had a matching blue faded shirt and a small neat hat out of which long blonde hair came out with no ornaments. The cowboy had a light red shirt and a brown jacket over it, 'his' hat was in the old western style with brown hair peeking out. Both had boots with spikes extending out of them, the cowgirl's smaller while the cowboy had seemingly fake pistols. At the moment though, both of them looked rather anxious, "What's wrong?" the cowgirl called, "Where's Damon?"

"He's gone," Mokuba tried to conjure up a smile, "He said he'll talk to me when I'm not so busy," he wasn't exactly lying was he? Just putting it in a lighter manner.

"Alright," the cowboy nodded slowly, "And what's the input on our subjects?"

Mokuba smiled a bit more sincerely this time, "Absolutely dandy, if I didn't know better I would have thought they were newly-weds." The other two laughed.

Then the cowgirl smirked, "Now it's my turn to check on them isn't it?"

"And you had better not do anything except check on them. I really don't want the plan messed up." The cowboy warned. The cowgirl had been looking outside the window but now she looked back and shivered, perhaps from the cold. "No, I won't mess things up," she said.

The cowboy nodded, "Bye then," her sentiment was echoed by Mokuba. The cowgirl nodded, "Bye,"

Once out of sight and earshot of the cowboy, and Mokuba the cowgirl smiled in a devious manner. 'She said she didn't want the plan to be ruined, doesn't mean I don't get to have some fun…'

She hid inside the crowds occasionally chatting with someone she recognized so as not to catch attention. She slowly got near the couple and tried to eavesdrop on them. They were arguing again, she was amazed. 'How can anyone fight as much as they do? Any outsider would think they liked fighting. They could put up a Punch and Judy show in any circus and demand whatever salary they want, no questions asked.'

And indeed, you can judge for yourself-

"Oh yeah! So you think you look so cool?" said 'Aphrodite'

"My my. The goddess of love has lost her cool so quickly? Tch" retorted the smirking vampire'And doesn't that sound like someone we all know?' The cowgirl wondered.

"And the vampire actually even smiles, isn't that such a great discovery! Oh! I'm swooning," replied the blonde with one hand on 'her' forehead pretending to faint.

"How can anyone be quite so irritating?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"You are the champion so _you_ tell _me_!"

'Bravo, Joey' the other blonde gave a mental cheer. But she also noticed that there were only two dances left until (as it had been dubbed) the 'couple dance' and started panicking, 'I have to think of something fast to get them all over each other!' she panicked, then she added to herself, 'And make sure neither Tea or Mokuba find out. Even I'm not willing to die for matchmaking's sake. It might make a statement but I would rather we alive to see it.'

While she was panicking the two she was spying on had gotten up and was coming near where she was standing behind the curtain and she smiled when this came to her notice. When 'Aphrodite' passed her she subtly stuck out her foot, just the edge but it did its work.

'Aphrodite' fell forward and 'her' night friend hurried forward and they ended up in somewhat of a jumble. "Are you alright?" the dark-haired one asked

The other one looked as if 'she' was going to scream and start sticking straws in 'her' head but 'she' settled for a non-committal grunt. The 'vampire' offered a hand, "Just don't bite it off," he admonished.

"I would love to but you don't look like you'll taste very good," the other shot back sourly

"Oh, touché," but he still offered the hand which was reluctantly accepted with a grumble, "And here I was thinking that this evening might actually be nice,"

At this point a flash of hurt slipped over the 'vampire's' face. "If you really think I'm that bad company…," his voice trailed off.

'Aphrodite' shook 'her' head, "It's not that. I guess I'm just in a mood,"

The 'vampire' brightened, "What about going outside then? It's much nicer in the garden"

"How would you know?" asked 'Aphrodite' with genuine curiosity

"Eh, I've been here a few times," he dismissed the question with a smile and repeated his own.

"Sure, why not?" 'she' replied

They slipped out of the throng and both sighed in relief as they reached the cool shaded parts where a gentle breeze was wafting through. The 'vampire' walked familiarly into one part of the garden and 'Aphrodite' decided to just follow him, 'It's not likely that he wants to kill me,' reasoning so and the fact that 'she' would get lost in the huge place if 'she' didn't follow him 'she' hurried after.

'She' gasped when she was pulled down to join 'her' partner on the damp- damp, not wet- grass under a tree rather near to the pond, where the moon was reflected. The tree was a Sakura tree and it was raining down. Everything was rather cliché but not quite. The moon was a crescent moon and it was raining down leaves from the tree, not flowers. 'She' smiled rather happily, 'she' had always hated crappy romance stories and all this rhyming of love to spring and such, 'Like that song of John Denver's, "And every word seems to rhyme with June," because that's just stupid since love is possible at any time.' 'she' thought and said happily to 'her' partner, "This place is just beautiful"

'She' could practically hear the smile in his voice even though there was no lighting around them except the moon and the stars. Not a problem, 'she' had quickly learned to read him. They were sitting quite close together, the density of the trees and the closeness to the pond made it a necessity, and in an abstract idle way, 'Aphrodite' found 'her'self liking the closeness- the barely heard inhalations and exhalations and the warmth that was seeping through their clothes. And the wind blowing through made the warmth even more likeable.

In the midst of all this and through their whispered conversation, 'Aphrodite' found herself lightly dozing and giving automatic answers to the 'vampire's' questions. Until 'she' was woken by the clanging of a bell. A very_ loud _bell.

And 'Aphrodite's' wishes for the bell and the person were not very less loud but (thankfully) as they were said while still in a semblance of sleep they weren't very legible.

'Aphrodite' stopped talking when 'she' heard a peal of laughter come from beside 'her'. "What's so funny?" 'she' asked in a surprised voice. It was a moment before the other boy could answer but he did, "You looked so cute when you were sleeping and you looked even cuter when you started yelling gibberish. I couldn't help myself"

"It wasn't gibberish," replied 'Aphrodite' sulkily

"No, of course it wasn't," replied the 'vampire'

'Aphrodite' turned 'her' back on him quite pointedly and he sobered down, "I'm sorry. I was laughing senselessly. Forgive me. My lady" he added as an afterthought.

"She' turned back quite happily and smiled, "What was the bell for, do you think?"

"Uh Oh!" replied the 'vampire', "that was the signal for the couple dance, we'll be late and that's going to be a problem."

"Why?" 'Aphrodite' asked

The 'vampire' shook his head, "Explain later, have to run for it now." Saying which he got motioning to 'Aphrodite' to do the same. 'Aphrodite' got up and followed the 'vampire' as he ran towards the direction of the house. 'She' yelled, "Wait up!" panting as 'she' tried to keep up with him in 'her' long dress and high heels.

'Her' shoes caught up in her dress and the floor rushed headlong towards 'her' but for the third time this evening she was caught by the mysterious 'vampire'. This time he didn't let 'her' go but caught 'her' up and ran towards the house with 'her' in his arms bridal style.

When they reached inside the house he slowly let her down and apologized, "I'm really sorry I did that, but it was necessary"

'Aphrodite' nodded to show it was alright and tried to prevent 'her' blush as much as she could. 'She' looked at the stage and realized that the people for the 'couple dance' were being called out.

The numbers that had been given earlier in the party were being called out and the owners of the numbers raised their hands and shuffled through the crowd until they reached their partners and started trying to figure out who the other person was.

'Aphrodite' slipped out of the room and onto a balcony, 'After all,' 'she' thought, 'Even though the evening has been nice and all. Seto is still the only one I love, and it's still very unlikely that he would agree to kiss me or that I would get him as a partner. It's not even very likely that he came to the party, I don't think I heard anyone getting frozen to death. Even though I do think that he's the vampire but…'

'She' smiled to 'her' self until she heard a rustling sound and called out sharply, "Who's there?"

"I'm not going to kill you lady, despite the fact that I do want to." Came a grumbling voice and a boy stepped out from the shadows

'It's that creepy girl's date,' 'Aphrodite' noticed then 'she' asked, "Why would you want to kill me, kid?" and 'she' used a falsetto

"Oh, no reason at all. It's just that I wanted to confess my love today to the one I love beyond my own life and I found out that he's completely obsessed with you and obviously _very _straight," said the boy in a sarcastic voice.

"Who's the 'he'?" asked 'Aphrodite' seemingly unconcerned about Damon's homicidal intentions towards 'her'

"Mokuba! That's who!" snapped the boy hot-headedly

"Then what about the girl you've been going around with nearly the whole evening?" asked 'Aphrodite' frowning, 'she' had never liked two-timers.

"That _is _Mokuba," he retorted

"Then either you're lying or joking or Mokuba's lost both his eyes," 'she' answered, back to her unconcerned manner though secretly pleased at finding out the 'mystery of the familiar girl'

"How so?" he asked taken aback

"Because I'm a boy and I'm very much in love with his brother," 'she' said stepping into the full glare of the moonlight and taking off her mask slightly.

"Oh golly. That was why he was looking at you all night." The boy exclaimed as if thunder-struck

"Quite possible," 'Aphrodite' shrugged, "But I assure you it isn't at all because he's obsessed with me,"

"I should go and ask him to forgive me shouldn't I?" he asked looking thoughtfully up at 'Aphrodite', "I did say some pretty nasty things to him,"

"Yeah," said 'Aphrodite' nodding, "Yeah, you should"

The boy ran off, "I have to go look for him," he muttered to himself, then he yelled back at 'Aphrodite', "Thanks, lady" and went off to search for Mokuba.

He found the brunette sitting in a dark corner (of which the room had plenty) of the room and crying.

"Mokuba," said Damon sitting down in front of him and shaking him gently, "Mokie?"

Mokuba looked up and started crying, if that was possible, even harder and said, "Damon, look I'm sorr…"

Damon interrupted, "No, Mokie. I'm sorry, I was jealous because I didn't have all of your attention and because I thought you were in love with her and all and I was scared…and Mokie," he took a deep breath and said, "Mokie, I love you. Please forgive me?" He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping, praying that he wouldn't be rejected when he felt two arms thrown around him.

"Mokie?" he asked confused

Mokuba beamed at him, "I love you too. I wanted to tell you today, I'll explain why I was staring at that lady so much. You se…"

"It's fine, you don't have to tell me anything. I know." Damon assured him.

"That's okay then," saying which Mokuba yawned and nuzzled into Damon's neck and went to Lady Dream's lap. Damon cradled him in his arms and smiled, 'I'll wake him up when the party is totally over, he looks so sweet now.'

Meanwhile, the scene at the balcony as Damon had left it had now changed. Another boy had come to take Damon's place.

"Here you are," he said to 'Aphrodite'

"Here I am," 'she' echoed with a smile

"You do know that you're my partner, don't you?" the vampire, (for it was he) asked

'She' looked at him surprised, "No, I didn't"

"Well?" he questioned 'her'

"Well, what?" 'she' said blankly

"Would you do me the honor of a dance?" he persisted patiently

"I can't, you know since I'll have to kiss you later then. You're so nice but I already love someone." 'She' told him

"So who is it pup?" the 'vampire' asked

"It really is you, isn't it Seto?" exclaimed 'Aphrodite' surprised

"You knew, pup?" he inquired

"As much as you knew I was me," 'she' answered happily

"You didn't answer me," he told 'her'

"About what?"

"About who you love,"

'She' hesitated then 'she' saw a falling star out of the corner out of 'her' eye. Quickly turning, 'she' wished on it, 'Give me the strength' and turning back to Seto 'she' folded 'her' arms around his neck and started swaying to the music. After a moment when he was paralyzed by surprise he put his arms around 'her' waist and moved with 'her'.

After eternity in ecstasy the sound stopped but they didn't stop moving. They were surrounded by their own music: the music of love.

And then Seto pushed him away, taking off his mask and hair tie and no longer was 'she' 'Aphrodite' but he was Joey, plain Joey but oh so much more pleasing to the eye than false glitters. Seto leaned forward and clasped his lips to his own and far from receding the music became louder until it was nearly earsplitting and Seto moved back, the music quietened but Joey couldn't take it anymore.

His knees gave way and after a split-second of fear only Seto's arms supported him. Mutual murmurs and acceptance of love and the music gave way to feeling.

Some place away the cow 'boy' and cowgirl were watching, resting in each other's arms. Another newly made couple.

Ah! Look like Aphrodite and her son, Cupid, have done their work here and done it well. So closes the curtain on this scene, and indeed this play.


End file.
